By Martha Moss - 15th June 2010
We are making good progress
Catherine Ashton
The leaders of parliament's main political groups have called for the European commission to be at the heart of efforts to reform economic governance.
EPP leader Joseph Daul, Socialist Martin Schulz, ALDE's Guy Verhofstadt and Greens co-leader Rebecca Harms were speaking in Strasbourg on Tuesday ahead of two resolutions on the EU 2020 strategy.
One of the resolutions, on economic governance, calls for a "common budgetary strategy" to ensure long-term growth.
It also says a European monetary fund should be created, with eurozone countries contributing in line with their GDP and fined according to their budget deficit.
The resolution, to be adopted on Wednesday, adds that the EU should move away from the open coordination method and make "broader use of binding measures" on economic policy.
Calling for "EU screening" of national budgets, Verhofstadt said the coming together of the main political groups reflected parliament's wish to see the European commission - and not member states - "in the drivers' seat of economic governance".
"The key issue is that it should be the EU commission conducting economic governance," he said.
Schulz warned that European institutions had been "losing power and losing respect".
He criticised the "increasing tendency" for decisions to be taken by heads of state and government, and called on the parliament and commission to "pull together and move Europe away from nationalism".
The news comes after it emerged that German chancellor Angela Merkel and French president Nicolas Sarkozy planned to put forward common proposals to deal with member states which breach EU budgetary guidelines.
Proposals to suspend voting rights and introduce possible amendments to the Lisbon treaty are expected to be put to EU leaders at this week's summit in Brussels.
Daul told reporters that the political groups had come together "to push for Europe".
"It's very important because it's the hour of truth for Europe," he said. "If we don't change our behaviour in a period of crisis I don't know when we can."
However, ECR deputy chair Timothy Kirkhope said his group would not be signing the resolution, which he described as "a politically driven exercise rather than a dispassionate assessment of the measures that we need in order to restore confidence in the eurozone".
"European countries do need to ensure that the principles of sound monetary policy, fiscal responsibility and honest government accounting are never flagrantly disregarded again," he said. "However, I think we can learn the lessons without resorting to another EU power grab.
"Unfortunately, many MEPs see the current crisis as an opportunity to increase the powers of the EU over national budgets. This is not acceptable."
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